I am a travelholic and a very lucky person who has been given opportunities to travel in 20+ countries by the age of 24. That's something I would have never expected to happen. Everything just happened. Just like how I first started working in IT industry in Poland after university but ended up as a location scout in Southeast Europe.

When chances come in life and interest me, I would just take them.

The Nerdiness In My Blood

Back in my high school days, I was quite a nerdy person in class. Writing "hello, world" was my major source of enjoyment. (Though, somehow, I manged to complete my Graphic Design degree in England with an upper second class honour. Achievement unlocked!) When I first started my multimedia study in university, I already have a bit freelance working experience of API projects for big names, so I thought I would choose the UI/UX study path without any doubt.

Plan and mind changed.

After my first year in university, I felt like university wasn't quite for me. So, I took a short break, applied for my first adult passport, and went travel alone, in Siberia.

I am an adventurous person deep in my blood. All the crazy happenings in Siberia just opened up my world. I found out I enjoy listening to people's stories.

I went back to university and changed my study path. I've got the chance to study film photography, storytelling and cinematography in my second year and that basically changed my life. I've finally found what I love doing! I enjoy writing script and visualising the script by any visual means, like photography and videography. I want to be a storyteller!

**Throwback - I believe I am probably the only person who actually enjoy writing personas when doing UX design back then. (Seriously, who would give a fuss on persona in school projects? Well, I do.)

Travel Makes Me Learn And Grow

The more I travel the more I learn and the broader my perspective becomes. I've learnt that travel is not all about beautiful landscape or tourist attractions. People, culture, history there also matter, all these factors come in a package.

Travelling in exotic destinations, like Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Chechnya, gives me an odd mixture of fear and excitement. Through travelling, I developed cultural awareness and received chances to meet loads of amazing people around the world! This also landed me my very first freelance location scouting job somehow, another long story tho.

Works I Do For Living

Right after my uni, I worked as a IT Analyst for 2 years (Yes, please imagine me in the IT Crowd) and started to work in video production by chance. There was a time I was into commercial photography for travel magazines, then moved into backstage and video production management, e.g. production set design for TVCs, overseas crew arrangement. Eventually, I landed in location scouting particularly. Wooffff...what a journey.

Been back in my hometown Hong Kong for 2 years so far, the time I spent in TV broadcasting industry helped me to gain in-depth knowledge about video production, like the industry standard and ability to adapt new production trends. Not to mention pressure management...fancy to get an emergency call from the Master Control Room at 1 a.m.? You should consider working in broadcasting then, especially in the newsroom.

Last But Not The Least: My Resting B*tch Face

Don't get me wrong because of my resting b*tch face, that's just my expressionless face. I am a nice person in general. Trust me.

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Oh wait...

Is there actually someone who finished reading this and not thinking I am an egomaniac?

You must be an awesome person then!

Anyway, follow me on Instagram for my instant update!

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This city is painted in grey
The first impression of Belgrade is kinda...not that positive. I made this "judgment" when I first arrived Belgrade and from what I saw from main train station, the general colour tone of the city architectures is pretty moody, grey and simply not appealing. The whole impression of Belgrade is a little bit depressive, if you ask me.

Not to mention the "war-torn" stereotype that has been promoted on media since 1999. I shall have studied more about the history and current affairs of an new destination. I blame no one but myself for being lazy and not taking my high school history class serious.

Belgrade is cheap in terms of living cost(from a traveller's view)
I stayed at hostel, for €10, I had a nice clean bed in the 6-bed dorm, which was empty when I checked-in. Food from local cafes is affordable and seems they don't have much habit to trap foreign travellers, unlike Barcelona...

People is nice but not "over friendly"

To be frankly, I didn't have much interactions with the local during my stay in Belgrade, mainly because I was not in the mood - I was too focusing on my following trip to Kosovo. I was once greeted by a supermarket staff in Chinese and a big nice smiley face. I had never expected to hear "Ni Hao!" in Serbia. I can't recall much stories between me and the local there, but in general I have quite a positive impression for the local people, at least, I received no racist joke from Belgrade.

I am a bit scared if the local is over friendly when I am in an new destination, for instantly, Istanbul or Pristina. Sometimes I just have no ideas If I overreacted and had mistaken friendliness for sexual interest, or even worst, the vice versa. That can be really confusing due to language barrier and misconception of foreign body language, if there is any.

After a quick nap in the hostel, I had my energy fully charged. 

Snapping around the centre -

Right in the city centre, this building can be easily spotted. What an alternative attraction of Belgrade. Benn told there is no plan from the government to clear up this building at this moment.

Here we come some cute mini scones. I found this recipe particularly easy and never fails me. Guessing this will become my weekly dose.

Ingredient

225g Plain Flour

3 level tsp Baking Powder
50g Butter - soften in room temperature
2 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 Egg
50ml Milk
2 tbsp Double Cream

Instruction
1.) Preheat oven to 200°C
2.) Sift in flour, baking powder and sugar in a large mixing bowl
3.) Beat the egg, milk and cream together in another bowl
4.) Mix the dry ingredients with the egg mixture and butter to form a dough
5.) Gently roll the dough on a floured surface to 2cm thick
6.) Cut out the scones with a scone cutter or in my case, a small round cookie cutter, to cut the miniature scones
7.) Place the scones on a lightly floured tray no more than 2-3cm apart so they stay moist
8.) Bake for 10-12 mins until risen and coloured on the tops

Enjoy the scones with your favourite toppings! I usually enjoy my scones with clotted cream and jam, accompanying with a cuppa Earl Grey would just be perfect!

Scones being baked in the oven for about 5mins, still pretty pale

Evening in Grozny central business area

1. Postwar recovery
I am a nerd who likes to study about postwar recovery. Everything from city re-planning to emigration. Chechen government and Moscow have obviously done a lot recovery works there. Time to study.

2. I always have doubts about things presented on mainstream media
Being someone who works from broadcasting industry, I've learnt how easy audience reception can be misled. (Sound like a conspirator, right?) Since mainstream media keeps telling us how dangerous Chechen people are, and even how the recent Chechen War has just turned the whole Chechen nation somehow becomes "the one whose name can't be spoken", I want to see this place by myself, just to prove that the whole Chechen nation may not be that bad as what the media told us.

3. I was upset by some fellow travellers
"Even Lonely Planet doesn't suggest people to go there, who do you think you are?" An experienced traveller questioned me when I first told him I was planning to visit Chechnya. He is a senior traveller who has been to more than 50 countries, I am just a newbie, I am supposed to respect him and listen to his advice...but wait, why should I have to follow his every single words?

Guidebook is for reference only. LP is written by human being. Way before the very first LP guidebook was even published, human being have been travelling across continents and oceans for thousands of years. Why bother what LP said when it is just a guidebook?
I was pretty upset by some fellow travellers who are still staying in the comfort zone. We need a sense of adventure sometimes.

4. Promote the sense of adventure
Chechnya is definitely not a popular tourist destination for most of the people on this planet but that doesn't mean tourists shall never go there. Chechnya has one of the most amazing Caucasus cultures, though there is not much travel information available online/offline. Let's just go there and discover this place!

5. Caucasus mountain
I like hiking and mountaineering, the stunning Caucasus mountain got me instantly when I first saw pictures from internet long time ago.

6. Be a cool hipster
Yes, it was cool when I told people I wanted to travel to Chechnya as a solo traveller, and it is still cool when I told people I have just been to Chechnya. Meanwhile, from time to time, there are some "experienced" travellers told me that's impossible and thought I lied. Whatever.